Stand for Israel

United Church of Canada to vote on Israel boycott

The latest group to jump on the "boycott Israel" bandwagon is the United Church of Canada. At the group's upcoming General Council, attendees will be voting on resolutions calling for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions.

Colby Cosh has their number. He notes that:

Israel is also said to be "built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners"; in view of the 1.4 million Arabs living within Israeli borders, Israel is not much better at ethnic cleansing than I am at cleaning my house. "Ethnic cleansing" must be one of the least useful political concepts added to the common lexicon in the last quarter-century; it has become, or was always meant to be, a term used when one wishes to attach the stigma of terror and genocide to a national grouping without technically accusing them of it.

Using the term "ethnic cleansing" to characterize the founding of Israel makes the term elastic enough to include freely contracted purchases of land by Zionists under the British Mandate, as well as the Palestinian Jews' refusal to let themselves be starved and exterminated by their Arab neighbours in the 1947-48 intercommunal free-for-all.

Jews are "cleansing" the region literally just by being alive there. The nerve!

Resolutions like these have been entertained by mainline Protestant groups for years now. Some have been shot down. But the fact that such groups are even willing to entertain this pernicious nonsense is shameful and inexcusable.

Support Trader Joe's!

From Powerline:

Very sadly, the tactic employed against Israeli products in Europe has now made its way to our own country, taking root in our own backyard and focusing its attention upon a grocery retailer that many of us patronize, Trader Joe's. Only the difference is that in the United States there is a significantly larger Jewish population than there is in Europe and we now find ourselves in a position to make an immediate and very positive impact on Israel's behalf.

Trader Joe's has been targeted by anti-Israel groups for boycotts, and possibly for picketing, because of their refusal to bow to pressure by anti-Israel groups who have sought to have the store's management remove Israeli products from their shelves. The group spearheading this effort nationwide is the BOYCOTT DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN, a coalition of anti-Israel groups that is based in Pittsburgh. Regionally, they are working in concert with the Northern-California-based South Bay Mobilization Group (not our South Bay, but rather that of Northern California).

Together with other groups comprising this sinister coalition that aims to cast Israel as an Apartheid State in the vein of South Africa - a baseless charge that reflects ignorance and, most often, anti-Semitic sentiments, those targeting Trader Joe's seek to bring harm to Israel's economy and to tarnish its standing in American public opinion by mobilizing intimidating boycotts in a most offensive manner.

Here's what we can do:

Learn more about this immediate concern by reading the report issued on the StandWithUs website (StandWithUs is a Los Angeles based Israel-advocacy organization that does outstanding work).

Please make a point of shopping at Trader Joe's over the coming days and weeks. Please go out of your way to introduce yourselves to store-managers and to let them know that one of the reasons that you are patronizing their store is precisely because of their principled and courageous determination to continue selling Israeli products. Let them know that you know of many others who feel this way, who might not choose to introduce themselves personally, but who have determined to support Trader Joe's all the more so because of its decision.

Wherever you may shop - for groceries and otherwise, please consider both or either (a) going out of your way to purchase Israeli products and/or (b) thanking store-managers or proprietors for carrying Israeli products.